Optina Pustyn'

For ten days I lived and worked in Optina Pustyn, one of Russia’s oldest and most influential monasteries. Founded in the 15th century, it has long been known as a center of spiritual life and pilgrimage. Its history carries both light and shadow — once a refuge for seekers, later a site of Soviet persecution, and now again an active monastic community.

I stayed as a  “trudnik” — a lay worker living among monks and other laborers. My days began at 6:30am, with the sound of bells calling us to the morning liturgy at 7. After breakfast we went straight to our assigned tasks. I worked in the candle workshop, surrounded by the smell of wax and the rhythmic murmur of prayers read aloud by one of the men as we worked. Each person had a role, and the work flowed quietly, almost mechanically, yet the air carried a sense of shared purpose.

The people there were as varied as their reasons for coming. For some, it was a retreat from addiction or crime, for others, an escape from debts or the weight of their lives outside. Not everyone carried dramatic stories, but almost all seemed to be running from something. The monastery held them in a strange suspension — a space between past and future where time felt slower, heavier.